Ambulatory hand emergency: 2 years-experience in an public university hospital center

Abstract

Hand emergencies represent the most frequent traumatic injuries and outpatient surgery is still improving. It will achieve 70% of total surgeries by 2022.

Our hand trauma center has been able to set up an emergency day surgery department in a university hospital center.

With this article, we would like to report the ambula- tory care management and practice for hand emer- gencies in our university hospital center over 2 years. 892 patients suffering from hand traumas and managed in our day surgery department, were retro-spectively reviewed between January 2016 and December 2017. Patients’ demographic data, anesthe- tic data, trauma’s circumstances, medical care and surgical outcomes have been disclosed. A descriptive analysis and a statistical assessment was realized.

Cut injury was the most recorded case, followed by impactions. Tendon injuries were the most frequent (32%), followed by fractures (26%), and exposed joints (18%). 13% of injuries were nil findings. Average patient care delay was 1.16 days. Mean of hospitalization was 7.5 hours. 16/892 patients needing intravenous antibiotics required hospitalization. 41 complications including 27 secondary surgeries were reported.

Hospital facilities are forced to reassess their entire procedures to achieve efficiency and improvement for healthcare. Progress in outpatient surgery permits emergency management in hand surgery, improving patient cares both medically and economically.